Even though Kinni Didi aka Kiran Bedi lost Delhi elections today, that did not stop her sisters, Reeta Peshawaria Menon and Anu Peshawaria from writing an inspirational comic book on her. After Bal-Narendra and Muffler-man this comic book will talk about how Bedi became an idol. According to a report in Indian Express, Kiran Bedi decided to play it cool one day ahead of the Delhi election results and released the comic of her own brand.
The theme of the comic revolves around the glorious life of Kiran Bedi which includes the many roles she played: tennis champion, university topper, policewoman, Magsasay winner, activist and now politician.
The comic also tries to show how Bedi always stood apart from the other girls in those times. For instance it mentions how she was “the first girl in Amritsar to drive a ‘Luna moped'” (although if you look at the comic book the moped resembles a bullet). It also mentions how she couldn’t stand eve-teasing or why she cut her hair to be ‘free’ while playing tennis and how she couldn’t stand dowry.
It also has one incident where Bedi tells her students she prefers pants to a sari because she was more comfortable in the former.
One of the chapters of the comic book has been published by Scroll.in and looks at how Kiran Bedi became an icon after she kept winning trophies in tennis. It points out how one of the first autographs she gave to a girl read, “Be extra-ordinary in your own life”.
When asked if she was nervous about the election results, Bedi chose to reply in her typical style. “If you read this book, you will know that at 14, I was a state champion; at 16, I became a national champion and at 20, I won the Asian tennis championship. I have seen many matches and this is just another match,” she told the paper.
Bedi isn’t certainly the first politician in India to get her own comic book. Previously, just before the Lok Sabha elections Rannade Prakashan and Blue Snail Animation had released Bal Narendra – Childhood Stories of Narendra Modi. It was a comic book on stories of bravery of the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, when he was a child.
The 45-page comic book shows Modi rescuing a drowning boy, swimming in crocodile infested waters, serving tea and food to soldiers going to war in 1962, taking on school bullies, helping his father sell tea, acting in theatre, strategising his team’s kabaddi win and even saving a trapped bird.
Seems like comic books are the new route to glorify various famous personalities and Bedi has opted for the same path as Modi. However from the looks of the early election result, it seems as if the comic book might have come a little too late.